David R. Adler is a music journalist, guitarist and music educator in the greater New York area. He is the current editor-in-chief of JazzTimes Magazine. His writing credits include The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Village Voice, NPR Music and more. He is also a former adjunct lecturer in jazz history at Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music, and editor of The Jazz Omnibus: 21st-Century Photos and Writings by Members of the Jazz Journalists Association (Cymbal Press, 2024).

From 2022-2025 he lived in West Yorkshire, England and worked as an itinerant guitar instructor, teaching primary and secondary students in small groups in a wide range of area schools. His teaching work continues stateside in 2026 with online and in-person lessons.

David earned a BFA in 1990 from The New School’s then brand-new program in Jazz and Contemporary Music. There he had the rare and extraordinary privilege of studying with legendary guitarists Jim Hall, John Abercrombie, Steve Khan and Vic Juris.

In 2022, while living in Georgia, David gained certification in K-12 Music Education at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. There he studied educational theory and human development, behavior and classroom management, choral conducting, vocal and piano pedagogy. He also completed intensive on-site training in schools ranging from nursery to high school — tasks ranged from directing musical theater for early grades to workshopping the reed section of a symphonic band and teaching a beginning choir to sight-sing.

As a session guitarist, David worked with a wide variety of artists in and around New York in settings including jazz, rock/pop, gospel, cabaret, musical theater and more. He gigged extensively with Tom Kitt — now a Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Grammy Award winner for his original Broadway musical Next to Normal — and performed in some of New York’s best-known venues, including Avery Fisher Hall, Roseland, Joe’s Pub, Knitting Factory, Second Stage Theater, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Gramercy Theatre, West Bank Cafe, Fez Under Time Café, Mercury Lounge, CBGB and The Living Room. As a member of the East Village–based band Keeta Speed (1996-1999), he recorded with the producers Dave McDonald (Portishead), Patrick Dillett (They Might Be Giants) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips).

David has written liner notes for such influential artists as Dave Douglas, Harold Mabern, Al Foster, Wallace Roney, David Binney, Orrin Evans, Ryan Keberle, Dayna Stephens and Alex Sipiagin, among many others. He has spoken as a panelist at the Strathmore Music Center, the EMP Pop Conference, the Literature/Film Association Conference, the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Vision Festival and the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) Conference.

He has also moderated panels for Symphony Space, the Philadelphia Music Project, Jazz Connect, FONT Music and the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA), and conducted pre-concert artist discussions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Ars Nova Workshop concert series and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Onstage, David has interviewed Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mike Reed, Jeff Parker and John Hollenbeck.